I 
spent my morning out in the estuary pulling some trawls with a group of high school student selected to be apart of a leadership program put on by the Collier County Sheriff's Department. We had about 42 students come out with us in two shifts. They were a great group. We saw lots of birds including snowy and great egrets, white ibis, brown pelican, least tern, black skimmer, osprey, and roseate spoonbill. We also saw several dolphins and a manatee. Unfortunately, we didn't get a lot diversity in the trawls. The comb jellies were thick, and in fact, ended up smothering a lot of the smaller fish (mostly mojarras) we caught. One of my favorite catches was an Oscillated Flounder. Unlike the more common Gulf Flounder we get that has 3 oscillated spots on its dorsal side, this one has 4. Other items brought up included 9-armed sea star, banded brittle star, porcelain crab, glass shrimp, ragged sea hare, colonial tunicate and a species of swimming crab. Not a bad way to spend my morning!
spent my morning out in the estuary pulling some trawls with a group of high school student selected to be apart of a leadership program put on by the Collier County Sheriff's Department. We had about 42 students come out with us in two shifts. They were a great group. We saw lots of birds including snowy and great egrets, white ibis, brown pelican, least tern, black skimmer, osprey, and roseate spoonbill. We also saw several dolphins and a manatee. Unfortunately, we didn't get a lot diversity in the trawls. The comb jellies were thick, and in fact, ended up smothering a lot of the smaller fish (mostly mojarras) we caught. One of my favorite catches was an Oscillated Flounder. Unlike the more common Gulf Flounder we get that has 3 oscillated spots on its dorsal side, this one has 4. Other items brought up included 9-armed sea star, banded brittle star, porcelain crab, glass shrimp, ragged sea hare, colonial tunicate and a species of swimming crab. Not a bad way to spend my morning! 
No comments:
Post a Comment